Bhaskar Initiative for School Heart Health Empowerment Studies (BISHES) focuses on protecting 10-19-year-old school adolescents, the largest segment of Nepal’s total population (24%), against the five primary cardiovascular behavioral risk factors.
Rationale
Bhaskar’s fate is unfortunately common. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading killer worldwide, as well as in Nepal accounting for 30% of total deaths in Nepal. 66% of the total annual deaths in Nepal are linked to Non-communicable diseases such as CVDs, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and others as shown in the figure. The trend is rising.
Evidence shows that 4 out of 5 premature deaths related to cardiovascular diseases can be prevented if we can eliminate the primary risk factors.
